Tianjin Eco-City in China is a 30 km2 modern township project currently under the joint development of Singapore and China. The project is scheduled to build sustainable homes for 350,000 residents by 2020 and is designed as a low-carbon eco-city. Tianjin Eco-City will use sustainable technologies, such as solar and wind power, plus innovative wastewater treatment and seawater desalination to reduce carbon footprints. Besides economics, engineering solutions that offer reduced carbon footprints in construction are favoured. A 270 hectare wastewater lagoon laden with contaminated sediments had to be remediated and transformed into a wetland lake as part of the development. Contaminated sediments were dredged for the wastewater lagoon. The lagoon was then pumped dry and reshaped before it was reimpounded. The dredged sediments were dewatered using geotextile tubes stacked four layers high. The geotextile tube stack was eventually capped and landscaped to form a 9 m high lakeside park land with a 12 hectares footprint area. This paper describes the carbon footprint calculation methodology. The carbon footprint for the geotextile tube dewatering and disposal solution for the contaminated sediments is determined. The carbon footprint for the geotextile tube solution was compared with the alternative mechanical dewatering and disposal solution.

The 33.9 km long Saemangeum Sea Dike in Korea links Gunsan in the north to Buan in the south. As of now it is the world's longest sea dike. Before the dike was constructed, Mangyeon River and Dongjin River discharged directly into the Yellow Sea. When the dike was completed, a 400 km2 reservoir was formed. Development involve land reclamation within the formed lake for agricultural, industrial, business, residential, wetland and ecotourism purposes. This paper concerns the land reclamation works for the Dongjin 1 Package. A polder dike that serves as a land reclamation dike during the construction period and as a flood protection dike for the longer term is constructed. The polder dike consists of a sandfill core with rock revetment for erosion protection on both sides of the dike. A road pavement is provided on top of the polder dike. In the original design, the sandfill core of the polder dike will be constructed in two phases. The first construction phase will involve the use of two rockfill berms to retain the sandfill core up to the water level in the lake. During the second construction phase, the sandfill core will be constructed with exposed gentle side slopes. As an alternative to the original design, geotextile tubes were used to replace the rockfill berms for the construction of the polder dike. More than 26 km of geo-textile tubes were used for this project. The geotextile tube alternative saved USD 6.2 million and up to 7 months in construction time. The geotextile tube alternative was also more environmentally friendly, giving a smaller carbon footprint when compared with the rockfill berm design.

Geosynthetics, in the form of geotextiles, have been used for riverbank and coastal protection works in Asia for almost 40 years. Over that time their use has evolved from simple revetment structures to sophisticated marine mass-gravity structures. The paper explores the wide range of geotextile techniques used for riverbank and coastal protection, and sets out the key performance criteria adopted in the region for the design of these structures. Examples of use are given in order to highlight specific applications.

The use of paving fabric for road rehabilitation works shall extend the life of the overlay asphalt concrete pavement. The paving fabric when saturated with bitumen shall acts as a stress absorption membrane, sealing and bonding between the new overlay and old pavement. The paving fabric shall consists of a continuous filament nonwoven needle punched geotextile which is commonly used for road rehabilitation. Another type of paving fabric which is also made of the same product but reinforced with glass fibre for reinforcement. This reinforced glass paving fabric is used for airport runway, taxiway, expressway rehabilitation works which are subjected to high traffic intensity. Laboratory trial has shown that the use of paving fabric delays cracks propagation from the old pavement reflecting up to the new overlay. It can extend the life of the new overlay by more than 2 times compared to overlays method without paving fabrics. A few Asia case histories, the installation procedure, bitumen selection, spray rate for the successful application of the paving fabric are highlighted in this paper.

The application of geosynthetics reinforcement to improve the bearing capacity and reduce differential settlement of loose or soft subgrade has increased significantly over the last decade. This paper presents a case study on the application of a high tenacity polyester composite geotextile as base reinforcement of a 1.6km access road from a temporary dock to a permanent foundation so that the transfer of a 1450 tons submarine was possible. As the ground which the road traverses comprises of 6m deep of very loose sand followed by 9m deep of very soft marine clay, the transportation of this submarine was almost impossible as the bearing pressure from the submarine and trailer exceeded the allowable bearing pressure of the soil. An innovative and cost effective solution which involved the replacement of 1.5m depth of the existing soil with well compacted granular material reinforced with 2 layers of high strength composite geotextile were employed. The design methodology, the construction sequence and the performance of this geotextile reinforced access road is discussed in this paper.

Geotextile containment provides novel solutions for hydraulic and marine engineering applications, and for environmental engineering applications. The three geotextile containment unit types - geotextile tubes, geotextile bags and geotextile containers - are used as mass-gravity elements for hydraulic and marine engineering structures. These same unit types are also used for the dewatering of waste and for the safe contained disposal of waste in marine environments.